TVSquad

A few years back, ReplayTV looked like a company that could give TiVo a run for its money. Both companies had high quality set-top boxes that let users watch TV on their own terms.

But the times have changed, and while TiVo has managed to survive the onset of generic cable-company PVRs, ReplayTV got out of the hardware business and has decided to focus on making computer software for those of us brave enough to turn our computers into personal video recorders. But ReplayTV doesn't hold the name recognition it once did. The company was also late to the game with its PC software, and charged far more money at first than competitors like SageTV or BeyondTV. In other words, we kind of shrugged when ReplayTV entered the consumer software business.

But now TiVo, the company that is still synonymous with the concept of personal video recording is talking about getting into PC-based software. And we can't help but think that this could be a game-changer.TiVo today announced that the company is working with Nero to develop PC software. It's not clear exactly what the software will look with, how much it will cost, or what kind of monthly subscription fees the companies will charge for access to guide data, if any.

Part of what makes BeyondTV, SageTV, and Windows Media Center attractive is that you pay once for the software and never have to pay for program guide updates. TiVo typically sells its hardware for a small profit, if any, and makes its money over the long run by charging a monthly subscription fee. In other words, over time, you can save a lot of money by purchasing a TV tuner, slapping it in your PC, and paying once for software. Of course, if you're addicted to getting the latest and greatest new features, you probably wind up paying for a software update every year or two, but that's still a far cry from spending hundreds of dollars up front for a TiVo and then paying $13 a month for the rest of your life to make it work.

But I'm betting that many consumers won't make that calculation in their head if TiVo starts making software and selling it at the right price. Instead, they'll see TiVo/Nero software as a low cost, flexible alternative to a TiVo set-top-box. TiVo's software has a reputation for being incredibly easy to set up and use. And if it's PC based, there should be all sorts of new opportunities for transferring recording programs to portable devices, enjoying online video content, and accessing media stored elsewhere on your home network. These are all things you can do with an existing TiVo box, but if Nero develops software that integrates TiVo's interface more directly with a PC environment, setting up these features could become a lot more user friendly.

Does this mean TiVo and Nero will put BeyondTV, SageTV and open source projects like MythTV and Media Portal out of business? Only time (and pricing) will tell. But my best guess is that it will force competitors to keep coming up with more advanced features. When Microsoft announced that practically every Windows Vista computer sold to consumers would have Media Center capabilities, that could have been the end of third party applications. But at least two things have kept competitors alive and ticking: Vista adoption has been slower than expected, and both SageTV and BeyondTV are a lot more customizable than Windows Media Center. The fact that neither incorporates DRM is kind of nice too.